'Red, White & Tuna' headlines Summer Stock

Averitt Center breaks out new summer internship program for college theater students

June 14, 2016

Rashida Otunba

This summer, the Averitt Center for the Arts has partnered up with students from the Georgia Southern University theater department to unveil a new series of theater shows called Summer Stock.

This is the first year the Summer Stock program has been featured at the Averitt Center. The program lineup will consist of two shows.

“We have a new theater space in our center for fine arts this summer for the first time ever. Since Georgia Southern has a theater degree program, we thought that a Summer Stock could be another terrific collaboration opportunity for us,” Tony Phillips, program director for the Averitt Center, said.

The Summer Stock intern staff consists of four GSU students, in addition to one GSU theater student who will serve as the assistant technical director. In order to participate in the Summer Stock program, GSU students were asked to send in a copy of their resumes, which was then followed by an interview.

“When you are blessed with the resources we have been blessed with, I feel it is important to share those blessings with others. The Summer Stock program gives these college students a real life theater working environment that partners well with what they are learning in the classroom at Georgia Southern,” Phillips said.

Although the program is an internship opportunity, prospective students were not required to have a wide range of experience in order to become a part of the Summer Stock program.

“I have stage managed before with the school, but I have not really had much experience with constructing to the extent we do in the intern program ... The biggest learning experience working on this show has been working in a professional theater, as well as working on shows that are servicing the community and bringing theater to Statesboro,” Sarah Shepherd, Summer Stock intern and senior theater major, said.

Summer Stock's two featured shows are Red, White and Tuna and 'night, Mother. The Georgia Southern interns are in charge of producing the shows, serving as members of the cast and crew.

“Red, White and Tuna is about a small town called Tuna, Texas, and all the crazy characters that you meet in a small town," Shepherd said. "I feel the audience will view this show as a bit of Statesboro and have an enjoyable night filled with laughter.”

“As for ‘night, Mother,” she added, “the play is about the relationship between a mother and daughter where the daughter deals with severe depression. I hope that the audience takes away the awareness of depression and how serious the matter is for all ages, and that it becomes a much more talked-about subject in the community.”

Both shows will be performed for the public three times in the Whitaker Black Box Theatre. Red, White and Tuna will run from June 23–25, and ’night, Mother will run from

August 4–6.

The Averitt Center has plans to continue the Summer Stock program next year. To learn more about the shows, please visit www.averittcenterforthearts.org.